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By Bahk Eun-ji
Only three out of 10 Koreans wash their hands with soap for at least 30 seconds after using the toilet, a report showed, Thursday.
Nearly 90 percent of the people surveyed for the report believed they were exercising sufficient personal hygiene, but fell short of health authorities' guidelines.
The report was made through a phone survey on 5,000 people during October last year by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), and data collected from direct observation by health officials of 2,000 people using public toilet basins.
To ensure proper hygiene, hands must be washed thoroughly with soap in running water for a minimum 30 seconds, the KDCA said. In the phone survey, 87.3 percent of respondents said that they wash their hands properly, up from 72.4 percent the previous year.
Among those who said they don't, 51.4 percent said they simply hadn't developed the habit of handwashing, while 29 percent said it is bothersome and 5 percent cited the absence of soap in the washrooms they use as the reasons for failing to observe basic hygiene.
KDCA workers, who were dispatched to basin areas of public toilets to directly observe handwashing, reported that 75.4 percent of people washed their hands, up from 63.6 percent the previous year. However, only 28 percent of them used soap while the rest rinsed their hands with water only.
"Proper handwashing can prevent various infectious diseases such as COVID-19, hepatitis A and influenza, and it is more important than ever during the pandemic," KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said.
